The Omnivore's Hundred

Seems like an interesting little meme, and since I have done one of those in a long while, I thought I'd do it.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred

Rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses [I presume this refers to the cheese, not the French village]
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes [Don't think so, at least]
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese [it's quite horrible]
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper [I like hot stuff, but I'm not suicidal]
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda [No, but it sounds quite good]
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu [I prefer food which you can eat without risk of death]
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel [They are endangered now, so people shouldn't eat them]
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut [Not impressed]
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear [Careful of thorns when you eat them]
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill [Not to my knowledge]
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

The list is a bit weird - some of the items on the list are quite common everywhere, and I wonder where the trully challenging dishes are (like Thousand-year eggs). Still, there were a few things on the list which I might just have to see if I can try.

Five things about me meme

Glendon has tagged me

The 5 Things Meme

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Studying economics. Not a great success, as people might have gathered from the fact that I don't do it any more.
2. Living around the corner from where I am living now. In the intervening time, I've lived in six other places, not of them around here.
3. Spending way too much time on the internet. The amount of time I spend these days is nothing compared to back then.
4. Worked in a ware house.
5. Partied too much, as 23 year olds earning money are wont to do.

5 things on my to do list today:
1. Clean up my kitchen - it's a mess.
2. Visit a friend and watch a DVD (already done).
3. Finish a book or two. I'm currently reading too many books.
4. Send of a few emails, that I should have sent off earlier this week.
5. Catch up on my sleep.

5 snacks I love:
[I don't really do snacks, but I'll give it a shot]
1. Does grapes count? I guess they do.
2. As must figs - dried or fresh.
3. Prawn flavored chips.
4. Brownies.
5. Cashew nuts

5 things I would do if I was a millionaire:
1. Travel.
2. Take some time off, and finish my degree.
3. Buy a bigger place.
4. Fill it with books, CDs and DVDs.
5. Continue with my life in general.

5 places I've lived:
1. Copenhagen
2. In a boat, in Copenhagen's harbor.
3. On a friend's couch, for several months.
4. In a two roomed apartment en-suit with my brother. The fact that we still talk is a wonder.
5. Rented rooms, all over Copenhagen.

5 jobs I've had:
1. Cleaning
2. Ware house worker
3. Bouncer at parties
4. Weekend caretaker at a badminton club
5. Systems developer

5 people I'll tag: I'll skip this time, but any reader feeling up to doing this, please go ahead.

The Atheist Thirteen

I found nullifidian's new blog meme rather good, so I thought I'd steal it.

If you’d like to take part, copy these questions, and answer them in your own words on your own blog.

Q1. How would you define “atheism”?

Lack of belief in any deity.

Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?

No, my parents were not religious. However, I live in a country with a state church, and had Christianity as a subject in school. Denmark is Lutheran Protestant.

Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?

Neo-creationism

Q4. What scientific endeavour really excites you?

None and all. I find it fascinating how scientists keep expanding our knowledge.

Q5. If you could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and why?

I would like us to be more open towards agnostics. And I would like everyone to stand up and be counted.

Q6. If your child came up to you and said “I’m joining the clergy”, what would be your first response?

Who are you?

If I was aware that I had a child, I would say something like:
Yes my dear, the last few years you spent on studying theology kinda gave it away (you have to have a theology degree to become a priest here).

Q7. What’s your favorite theistic argument, and how do you usually refute it?

I can't say that I have a favorite theistic argument. But I hate Pascal's Wager with a passion, since it's simplistic and stupid, yet the people who put it forth seems to believe it's clever.

Q8. What’s your most “controversial” (as far as general attitudes amongst other atheists goes) viewpoint?

I think race is a social construct. Quite a few other agrees with this stance, but many don't.

Q9. Of the “Four Horsemen” (Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris) who is your favourite, and why?

Dawkins is probably my favorite, due to his overall views. Dennett I haven't yet read. Hitchens I disagree somewhat with politically, and Harris' implicit defense of torture means that I have no respect for him.

Q10. If you could convince just one theistic person to abandon their beliefs, who would it be?

Obama.

Now name three other atheist blogs that you’d like to see take up the Atheist Thirteen gauntlet:

I won't name anyone, but I hope some of my readers might pick it up on their own.

Book meme

Just to prove that I'm still around, and because I can't pass on book memes, I'm going to fill out the 106 books of pretension meme (via Wilkins and Lynch).

The books listed below are "the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users." What I’ve read is in italics, what I never finished is struck through:

* Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
* Anna Karenina
* Crime and Punishment
* Catch-22
* One Hundred Years of Solitude
* Wuthering Heights
* The Silmarillion
* Life of Pi : a novel
* The Name of the Rose [haven't given up on it though]
* Don Quixote
* Moby Dick
* Ulysses
* Madame Bovary
* The Odyssey
* Pride and Prejudice
* Jane Eyre
* The Tale of Two Cities [planning on giving it another go, though]
* The Brothers Karamazov
* Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
* War and Peace
* Vanity Fair
* The Time Traveler’s Wife
* The Iliad
* Emma
* The Blind Assassin [again, want to try it again]
* The Kite Runner
* Mrs. Dalloway
* Great Expectations
* American Gods
* A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
* Atlas Shrugged
* Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
* Memoirs of a Geisha
* Middlesex
* Quicksilver
* Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
* The Canterbury tales
* The Historian : a novel
* A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
* Love in the Time of Cholera
* Brave New world
* The Fountainhead
* Foucault’s Pendulum
* Middlemarch
* Frankenstein
* The Count of Monte Cristo
* Dracula
* A Clockwork Orange
* Anansi Boys
* The Once and Future King
* The Grapes of Wrath
* The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
* 1984
* Angels & Demons
* The Inferno
* The Satanic Verses
* Sense and Sensibility
* The Picture of Dorian Gray
* Mansfield Park
* One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
* To the Lighthouse
* Tess of the D’Urbervilles
* Oliver Twist
* Gulliver’s Travels
* Les Misérables
* The Corrections
* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
* The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
* Dune
* The Prince
* The Sound and the Fury
* Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
* The God of Small Things
* A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
* Cryptonomicon
* Neverwhere
* A Confederacy of Dunces
* A Short History o f Nearly Everything [currently reading this]
* Dubliners
* The Unbearable Lightness of Being
* Beloved
* Slaughterhouse-five
* The Scarlet Letter
* Eats, Shoots & Leaves [currently reading this]
* The Mists of Avalon
* Oryx and Crake : a novel
* Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
* Cloud Atlas
* The Confusion
* Lolita
* Persuasion
* Northanger Abbey
* The Catcher in the Rye [hated this, but it was a school assignment]
* On the Road
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame
* Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
* Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
* The Aeneid
* Watership Down
* Gravity’s Rainbow
* The Hobbit
* In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
* White Teeth
* Treasure Island
* David Copperfield
* The Three Musketeers

There are quite a few of the other books on the list that I either own or probably will buy in the future, as I want to read them.

Except for the Rand books, I think the only really pretentious book on the list is A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which is also pretty much the worst book on the list (except for the Rand books).

7 random things about me

Since I've been tagged by both Grrlscientist and Shalini, I thought I should get around to actually do this meme.

The Rules are as follows:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


Seven Random or Weird Things About Me:


1. I dislike heights and speed - roller coasters are not a source of enjoyment for me.

2. I don't have a drivers' license. Living in a city with a great public transportation system, I've never really needed it.

3. Most of friends are into computers in one way or another, even though none of us were really into them, when we first met.

4. While my native language is Danish, my first language was really English. I just forgot it all while in kindergarten, and had to relearn it in school.

5. Even though Denmark is not well known for its sunny weather, I' most comfortable when the temperature is above 30 degrees.

6. I hate rain and cold. Slush makes me aggressive. Snow is fine, when looking at it from indoors.

7. My favorite drink is a single malt whisky, preferably from Isle of Islay, though I also love Talisker.

Seven Random (non-pseudonymous) Bloggers whom I read;


1. Martin at Aardvarchaeology

2. Anthony at Black Triangle

3. Spocko at Spocko's Brain

4. Cara at the Curvature

5. Viginia at Virginia Hughes

6. Mrs Tilton at 6th International

7. All the other bloggers on my blogroll who feels like answering this meme.

I apologize in advance if any of the tagged people already have done the meme, but I haven't been quite up to my blogreading lately.

The Pharyngula Mutating Genre Meme

A blogging and scientific experiment.

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is ...".

Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

*You can leave them exactly as is.

*You can delete any one question.

*You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is...", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is...:, or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is...".

*You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...”.

*You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the "parent" blog you got them from, e.g. Pro-science to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.
---------

My great-grandparent is Pharyngula.
My grandparent is Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My parent is The Flying Trilobite

The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is:
Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock

The best feminist movie in scientific dystopias is:
The Handmaid's Tale (1990)

The best sexy song in rock is:
A Kiss Between the Legs by D.A.D. (formerly Disneyland After Dark) on their Everything Glows album.

The best cult novel in Canadian fiction is:
Micorserfs by Douglas Coupland

I call upon the following to continue this scientific experiment:
"ae" and sometimes "ä"

Beep Beep It's Me

Faux Real

Feministe

Tyler and Foxy's Scientific and Mathematical Adventure Land

Hot Cup of Joe

Sara Speaking

White Coat Underground

Anyone else who wants to play out this science experiment, please do, and let me know!